As the first group of 37,000 Afghan refugees begins arriving in US states, a group of more than 30 US companies have agreed to make the transition smoother with the commitment to hire and train these refugees.
According to Tent Partnership for Refugees, the organization spearheading the employment initiative, the 33 companies joining the agreement, called the Tent Coalition for Afghan Refugees, include Coursera, Deloitte, Mastercard, Facebook, Pfizer, and UPS. The coalition was founded by Hamdi Ulukaya, the founder and CEO of food company Chobani.
Ulukaya is a Kurdish immigrant from Turkey and began his business as a small farm in New York before expanding into one of the US’ largest food companies. “I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again — the moment a refugee gets a job, it’s the moment they stop being a refugee,” he said in a statement.
The companies’ commitment to the coalition includes not only hiring Afghan refugees, but also investing in training and education programs to prepare them to thrive within their new work environments.
